A few wood stabilizing questions

Pre-shaping seems like a fine idea, especially if you don't want to use heat to generate the vacuum. "Only" soaking it will limit how deep the hardener gets into the wood.
 
I was wondering about the pin holes too. I don't see why but could there be problems with drilling them before stabilization.

I would gladly use heat but I don't have that many IQ points to waste. ;)

Pat
 
I don't think there will be much if any dimensional change after stabilizing, so I don't see why you couldn't drill your pin-holes first, as long as you carefully plan how they're going to be laid out.

It would seem that would help the wood hardener get into the center of the wood. If you're concerned about it, just drill the scales how you want and wait to drill the tang till after they're stabbed and dry. (Use the scales as your drilling template.)

You definitely don't want to heat up wood hardener indoors; not only is it extremely volatile even at room temp (gasses off all kinds of nasty fumes), there's a serious fire hazard involved.

As a final note, I've found that letting the pro's do it isn't all that expensive. The couple places I've looked at online charge by the pound of wood (and a pound of typical handle material is quite a bit) and will charge a couple bucks more per pound if you want it dyed. As for me, I think I will farm out my stabilizing work :)

If you have trouble finding a place to do it for you, I will re-post with a couple links. I know lots of the big names around here use WSSI.
 
You may have to redrill or ream the pin holes you had before stabalizing, after stabalizing.....

If you don't want to do your own stabalizing, the folks out in Iola, Iowa have never disappointed me at all......
 
If you got an air compressor you could use the intake side for the vacuum but be sure to put a liquid trap in the line or you will get hardener in your compressor.
Hope this helps.
 
Any of those links on Canada by chance? I would like to have it done but play money is limited sadly.

I would mess up my compressor I am sure. :(

Pat
 
Not sure about Canada, but this one is in Wisconsin (almost as close as you can get :) ) Shoot them an e-mail about shipping costs; I emailed them with some questions and they got back to me pretty fast :thumbup:

They cater to both pen-makers and knife-makers, many of their pre-stabilized materials are available in sizes suitable for us; seems like they understood my questions and gave me good answers.

Don't forget google; I typed in "wood stabilizing Wisconsin" and found them, so just put in Canada or your province instead. Ya never know what you might find.
 
I don't know of links but you can put a container in between your compressor like your spark trap on your grinder to trap any fluids that get by and make it air tight and 2 times the size of your vacuum pot.I made one out of a fresh air compressor just changed lines and put a fluid catcher in the line and used a quart canning jar so i could see what it was doing. wear a safety shield or something just encase.Hope this helps.
 
James_Terrio said:
You definitely don't want to heat up wood hardener indoors; not only is it extremely volatile even at room temp (gasses off all kinds of nasty fumes), there's a serious fire hazard involved.

As a final note, I've found that letting the pro's do it isn't all that expensive.
Click to expand...
I agree with James. I tried it once the way it is described on northcoastknives.com and will not do it again. It is messy and stinks like hell even outdors. Use a respirator if you deside to do it or you will have a headache like I did. The wood hardener is not that cheap also and a lot of it boiled away. The resulting scales look nice, I still have to use them on a knife to see how it really worked. Next time I will buy stabilized burl or send it to prefessionals to do the stabilization.

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Sergiy
 
Padriq, if you do this you might try drilling a few holes in the back of the scales like some of us do before epoxing the scales onto the tang of the knife. That may help more of the resin get into more of the handle material. Just an idea.
 
I really wasn't sure about heating the stuff up. Thanks for confirming it's not that good an idea.

Ariel's tutorial looks interesting but I was interested in using positive pressure instead than a vacuum like in the link I gave above.

Thanks Wade that should help getting better penetration.

Pat
 
jrhart50, as I posted in another thread, I found a compressor and will try your method. I might have a few more questions when I get time to work on this some more.

Thanks

Pat
 
One of the fittings on the compresser will have a suction to it and that might work.
disconect all the fittings from the top of compresser and plug in and see witch one has a suction i think it will be on the top ware that black round thing is coming out the side of the top. Just take it out and take other tube off tank plug it in and see with your finger if you got suction and that will be the side you want to use. Hope this helps and maby someone with more imfo will help you on this.
 
Is Resinol really what people like WSSI use for stablilization? Also that kit from ironwoodknives is a kit very similar to one built by a knife maker awhile back. Do not remember who it was or where it was posted at but he had built it from parts at Habor Freight and only spent something like 75 dollars. But it looked real close to that unit posted. There has been several ways to stabilize in the past, but the biggest problem to has always been what to use. Mimwax Woodhardner is the only thing that I know of that is readily available and I am not sure how that would compare to what WSSI uses.
 
Wade, I agree that those kits seemed awfully expensive. I gave the link just as a reference as I would not buy one at that price. I did find some MinWood and that's what I will try.

Jr, thanks, I'll try that and let you know how I do.

Pat
 
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